From the building formerly known as GM Place, the USA women are currently leading Sweden 5-1 after two periods.

I just got back up from the Brian Burke press scrum, and the American GM lit into his team like all smart coach/GM's would do after a big win that did in fact accomplish nothing other than a simpler path (would avoid Canada, Russia or Sweden to gold-medal game if they're in it) to the ultimate goal.

Some Burke highlights:

--"I'm not happy with the way we've played to this point. … We have to play significantly better. We need all hands on deck. We're playing with about 10 guys carrying us. … Thank god there are some guys pulling on the rope, but we need everyone pulling on the rope."

--"Everything gets ratcheted up now. We've got to ratchet it up, too, or all this goes for naught. They don't hand out any medals for finishing first in the preliminary round." --"No one's taking any bows now. I am not pleased with how we've played to this point." Burke on Toronto Maple Leafs' Mikhael Grabovski (Belarus), who was arrested after an alleged bar fight the other night (no charges filed yet): "We'll have no comment because it's still under investigation, but our preliminary reports are it seems like a minor incident. There are a backlog of cases because of the Olympics. This is a minor thing, a street fight or argument or whatever it was. They might not get to this for several weeks and then they'll let us know. We've made it clear that if he needs to appear, he'll appear, but at this point there is no charges filed. Injured? "As far as I know he's healthy. Stupid, but healthy."

Couple other items:

--Roberto Luongo will likely get the start tomorrow vs. Germany

--NBC will televise live Wednesday U.S. game on NBC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What an honor! USA-Canada on MSNBC was third-highest rating in MSNBC history (8.2 million people).

--Wild's Antti Miettinen on why he sat on the bench in full uniform and didn't play a shift vs. Sweden: "I played like [expletive] the first two games. That's why."